^ On
a 14 December:2003 Pakistani
dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf [11 Aug 1943~] escapes an assassination attempt
when a powerful bomb explodes a couple of minutes after his highly-guarded
convoy crossed a bridge in Rawalpindi. There are no casualties.2001Annular
eclipse of the sun of 3m53s, visible in the Pacific, and Costa Rica.

2001 Saudi Princess beats up
maid: illegal in US.
Princess Buniah al-Saud, 41, slaps her maid, Ismiyati Memet Soryono,
36, and pushes her down the stairs. Buniah is a niece of King Fahd
and granddaughter of the founder of the Saudi kingdom, staying in
a $525-a-night suite at the Hyatt Grand Cypress Hotel in Orlando,
Florida, and studying English at the University of Central Florida
since the spring of 2001. When the police arrive, Buniah claims diplomatic
immunity. After finding this to be false, the sheriff has her arrested
os 17 December 2001 on a felony charge of aggravated battery. Later
Buniah is also charged with grand theft and dealing in stolen property;
after she sells her chauffeur's large-screen television and other
goods worth $6000 to raise cash to flee Orlando without leaving a
paper trail. A judge here confiscates Princess Buniah's passport,
but allows her to leave the Orlando area.
The Soryono was born in Indonesia and moved to Saudi Arabia in the
1990's to do domestic work, she has been employed by Princess Buniah
for three years. She says that she was frequently beaten by the princess,
was on duty 24 hours a day, but could not leave, because the princess
was keeping her in involuntary servitude, having withheld the maid's
$200-a-month salary for two months. In 2000, the US Congress established
penalties of up 20 years in prison for people who bring immigrants
into the US and force them into involuntary servitude. Russell
Troutman, the Orlando personal injury lawyer for Soryono, also represented
a maid in a 1995 case in which Princess Maha al-Sudairi beat that
maid and another servant after $200'000 in cash and jewelry disappeared
from a luggage room in the Swan Hotel, at Walt Disney World.

2000 The US Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved
the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.

2000 Oops... wrong number!.
Former West German Social Democrat
leader Bjoern Engholm is cleared of having been Stasi agent "Beethoven.
 The mistake was due to misreading, on a fuzzy CIA copy, one
of the code numbers identifying agents of the former East German secret
police. Stasi documents fell into American hands when US agents dashed
behind the crumbling Berlin Wall ahead of their allies. So Berlin
often needs Washington's aid in bringing prosecutions.

2000 PUTIN FREES POPE: Russian president Putin pardons
Edmond Pope, 54, US businessman sentenced to 20 years in prison as a spy,
for buying torpedo plans, which Pope says were not secret.

2000 Elephants coming! Clear
out! Rampaging
elephants have ravaged vast stretches of farmlands and sacked 44 villages
in north Nigeria, government officials and witnesses declare. Witnesses
said that the elephants strayed from a nearby games reserve over the
weekend and attacked villages in Gwoza, Chibok, Damboa, Biu, Kwaya-Kusar
and Bayo Local Government Areas. This is the worst elephant invasion
of the area within the last 35 years. The elephants destroyed farmlands,
cash crops and valuable trees. Agriculture Commissioner Ibrahim Bulama
says that the government plan to build a fence around the Yankari
games reserves to demarcate the villages from the grazing routes and
yearly migrations of the elephants. The northeastern Borno State government
has warned other villagers in the six local government areas affected
by the invasion to relocate pending government action.

2000 BILL'S BILL PAID TO BELL BY MIRROR: In London for
an official visit, US president Bill Clinton goes with his entourage to
the Portobello Gold pub for lunch, and leaves without paying the £24.70
($36.22) bill. Britain's mass circulation Mirror tabloid assuages
pub owner Mike Bell by paying the bill.

^1998 Microsoft Windows shown to be separable from Windows
98 In a
direct contradiction of testimony by Microsoft, a Princeton professor
said he had removed Internet software from Windows 98 while leaving
the operating system intact. Microsoft had claimed the two products,
which had been programmed together, could not be separated. Justice
Department prosecutors attempted to demonstrate that Internet Explorer
and Windows 98 were actually two different products, which Microsoft
had illegally tied together in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage
over its rivals.

1997 Tras no verse satisfechas las aspiraciones de Turquía
de integrarse en la Unión Europea, el gobierno de Ankara decide negarse
a dialogar con ésta. 1996 A freighter lost
power on the Mississippi River and crashed into the Riverwalk complex in
New Orleans (no one was killed). 1996 Teamsters
President Ron Carey won election to a second term (however, the results
were later overturned and Carey barred from a rerun vote by a court-appointed
monitor who ruled that Carey had used union money for his campaign)

^1995 Bosnian peace treaty signed
In Paris, France, leaders from the
former Yugoslavia sign the Bosnia peace treaty, formally ending four
years of bloody conflict. The US-backed peace plan was proposed during
talks in Dayton, Ohio, earlier in the year, and was reluctantly accepted
by the last of the belligerent parties on November 11, leading to
the formal peace talks in Paris. The Dayton Peace Accords recognized
the Serbian government within Bosnia in exchange for the abandonment
of Bosnian Serb claims to sections of northwest Bosnia and the city
of Sarajevo. After the formal signing of the peace plan by Bosnian
President Alija Izetbegovic, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic,
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic, the U.N. lifts economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia,
and orders a NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Bosnia to enforce the
agreement.  Los presidentes de Serbia,Slobodan Milosevic;
Croacia, Franjo Tudjman, y de Bosnia, Alija Izetbegovic, firman en
el Palacio del Elíseo de París el acuerdo de paz para
Bosnia.

^1995 Boeing strike ends
After sixty-nine grueling days on the picket-line, machinists for
the Boeing Company gave the go-ahead to a new contract on this day
in 1995. The deal was studded with labor-friendly items, including
a bonus, an hourly-wage increase, and an improved health plan, prompting
union leaders to declare victory in the strike. It was a rare ray
of hope for the beleaguered labor movement, which only a week earlier
had seen an eighteenth-month walk-off against Caterpillar end in defeat.
Along with the pay hike and health plan, the 33'000 striking machinists
also gained some ground on safeguarding workers whose jobs are sent
overseas. Indeed, Boeing agreed to retain and retrain anyone affected
by "subcontracting" to cheaper international plants. However, some
analysts tempered labor's celebration, noting that Boeing still intended
to send 52 percent of its work overseas or to non-union US plants.
As Charles Hill, professor of management at the University of Washington
explained, the workers came out on top, though "they didn't win as
much as they all think they did. 

^1980 CIA reports Soviet arms sales to Third World A CIA report claims that the
Soviet Union delivered nearly $7 billion worth of military assistance
to Third World nations in 1979, and made over $8 billion in arms sales
during that same year. The study also noted that there were nearly
51,000 communist military advisors in Third World countries. The report
indicated that the arms sales increased instability and chances for
military conflict. The CIA study
portrayed an alarming growth in Soviet military assistance to the
Third World, particularly to nations in the Middle East and Africa.
According to the report, Syria, Iraq, and South Yemen were the primary
recipients of aid to the Middle East while Angola and Ethiopia received
most of the arms sold to Africa. Much of this assistance was in the
form of sophisticated weapons such as MiG fighter-bombers and surface-to-air
missiles. Almost two-thirds of the military advisors were Cubans whom
Fidel Castro assigned to Angola. Despite this massive effort, the
study concluded that, "Moscow has recruited few adherents to its ideology.
 Nevertheless, the economic advantages were significant. Together
with an expanded program of economic assistance, Soviet arms sales
to the Third World helped open markets and provide hard currency for
the Russian economy. Soviet trade with the Third World increased from
just over $250 million in 1955 to over $13 billion in 1978. In addition,
the Soviets were able to obtain sources for natural gas (Afghanistan),
oil (Iraq and Syria), and aluminum (Turkey).
The report ended on an ominous note, suggesting that Soviet arms sales
to the Third World--particularly to the Middle East--were dangerously
increasing instability and the chances for war. The report failed
to investigate the impact of the $6 million in arms sales the US made
to the Third World

^1964 Bombing of Laos begins
In Laos, Operation Barrel Roll, the
name given to the first phase of the bombing plan approved by President
Lyndon B. Johnson on December 1, begins with US planes attacking "targets
of opportunity" in northern Laos.
This operation was initiated in response to a Pathet Lao offensive
in the Plaine des Jarres in north central Laos. The Pathet Lao were
communist guerrillas who were fighting to overthrow the Royal Lao
government. Operation Barrel Roll was designed to provide air support
for the Royal Laotian Army and CIA-trained Hmong (mountain people)
irregular forces led by Gen. Vang Pao. In addition to these operations,
there was also another part of the war in Laos which was conducted
in the eastern part of the country along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which
ran out of North Vietnam through Laos and south along the South Vietnamese-Cambodian
border. The North Vietnamese used this trail network as the main avenue
by which they supplied and reinforced their troops in South Vietnam.
Operations Steel Tiger and Tiger
Hound were initiated in April and December 1965 respectively to bomb
the trail in an intensive and protracted attempt to interdict the
massive amounts of men and supplies moving along the corridor. By
1973, when Operations Barrel Roll, Steel Tiger, and Tiger Hound were
terminated, Laos had become the most heavily bombed country in the
world. During these operations, allied aircraft dropped more than
3 million tons of bombs, three times the amount dropped on North Vietnam.
US spending for these bombing campaigns was 10 times that of the Laotian
national budget.

1963 Referéndum favorable a la ley de autonomía
administrativa en la Guinea Ecuatorial española. 1962
First data transmitted from Venus US space probe Mariner 2 comes within
35'000 km of Venus and measures the temperature and other characteristics
of the planet, which it radioes back to Earth.  La sonda estadounidense
Mariner II se acerca a 33'000 Km de Venus, tras recorrer 300 millones de
km.

^1961 US to increase aid to South Vietnam
In a public exchange of letters with
South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, President John F. Kennedy
formally announces that the United States will increase aid to South
Vietnam, which would include the expansion of the US troop commitment.
Kennedy, concerned with the recent advances made by the communist
insurgency movement in South Vietnam wrote, "We shall promptly increase
our assistance to your defense effort. 
Kennedy's chief military adviser, Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, and Special
Assistant for National Security Affairs Walt W. Rostow had just returned
from a fact-finding trip to Saigon and urged the president to increase
US economic and military advisory support to Diem. The military support
was to include intensive training of local self-defense troops by
American military advisers. Additionally, Taylor and Rostow advocated
a significant increase in airplanes, helicopters, and support personnel.
In a secret appendix to their report, Taylor and Rostow recommended
the deployment of 8000 US combat soldiers, which could be used to
support the South Vietnamese forces in combat operations against the
insurgents. To overcome Diem's resistance to foreign troops —
which he saw as a potential Viet Cong propaganda windfall —
Taylor and Rostow suggested that the forces were to be called a "flood
control team.  Kennedy, who wanted to stop the communists but
also wanted to be cautious about the degree of involvement, accepted
most of the recommendations, but did not commit US combat troops.
In return for the support, Kennedy
requested that Diem liberalize his regime and institute land reform
and other measures to win the support of his people. Diem initially
refused, but consented when he was threatened with a reduction in
the promised aid. In the long run, however, his reforms did not go
far enough and the increased American aid proved insufficient in stemming
the tide of the insurgency. Diem was murdered during a coup by his
own generals in November 1963. Shortly thereafter, Kennedy was assassinated.
At the time of his death, there were more than 16'000 US advisers
in South Vietnam. Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, rapidly
escalated the war, which resulted in the commitment of US ground forces
and eventually more than 500'000 American troops in Vietnam.

^1946 U.N. accepts $8 million from Rockefeller The United Nations General Assembly
votes to accept a gift of more than eight million dollars from American
philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to be used toward the establishment
of permanent U.N. headquarters along New York City's East River. In
1945, in the aftermath of World War II, the international organization
was established to maintain peace and security in the postwar world.
The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, with fifty-one
nations represented, occurred on January 10, 1946, in London, England.
On October 24, 1949, exactly four years after the United Nations Charter
went into effect, the cornerstone of the permanent U.N. headquarters
is laid in New York City. Designed by an international team of architects
led by American Wallace K. Harrison, the U.N. headquarters consists
of four main buildings: the General Assembly building, the Conference
building, the thirty-nine-floor Secretariat building, and the Dag
Hammarskjold Library, which was added in 1961. The eighteen-acre site
is an international zone belonging to all U.N. member states, and
includes its own security force, fire department, and postal administration.

^1939 USSR is expelled from the League of Nations The League of Nations, the international
peacekeeping organization formed at the end of World War I, expels
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in response to the Soviets'
brazen invasion of little Finland on 30 October.
Although the League of Nations was more or less the brainchild of
President Woodrow Wilson, the United States, which was to have sat
on the Executive Council, never joined. Isolationists in the Senate--put
off by America's intervention in World War I, which they felt was
more of a European civil war than a true world war--prevented American
participation. While the League was born with the exalted mission
of preventing another "Great War," it proved ineffectual, being unable
to protect China from a Japanese invasion or Ethiopia from an Italian
one. The League was also useless in reacting to German remilitarization,
which was a violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the document that
formally set the peace terms for the end of World War I.
Germany and Japan voluntarily withdrew from the League in 1933, and
Italy left in 1937. The true imperial designs of the Soviet Union
soon became apparent with its occupation of eastern Poland in September
of 1939, ostensibly with the intention of protecting Russian "blood
brothers," Ukrainians and Byelorussians, who were supposedly menaced
by the Poles. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were then terrorized
into signing "mutual assistance" pacts, primarily one-sided agreements
that gave the USSR air and naval bases in those countries. But the
invasion of Finland, where no provocation or pact could credibly be
adduced to justify the aggression, resulted in worldwide reaction.
President Roosevelt, although an "ally" of the USSR, condemned the
invasion, causing the Soviets to withdraw from the New York World's
Fair. And finally, the League of Nations, drawing almost its last
breath, expelled it.

^1931 Rolls-Royce acquires Bentley
Bentley Motors is taken over by Rolls-Royce.
Bentley Motors, a maker of luxury automobiles founded in 1920, was,
like Rolls-Royce, one of the finest names in the business. As a Rolls-Royce
subsidiary, Bentley was guided by the Rolls-Royce esthetic. Gradually,
Bentley automobiles acquired elements of classic Rolls-Royce design
until automobiles of the two marques became virtually indistinguishable.

^1911 Amundsen reaches the South Pole. Norwegian Roald Amundsen
and four companions become the first explorers to reach the South
Pole, beating the expedition of their British rival, Robert Falcon
Scott. Amundsen, born in Borge,
near Oslo, in 1872, was one of the great figures in polar exploration.
In 1897, he was first mate on a Belgian expedition that was the first
ever to winter in the Antarctic. In 1903, he guided the 47-ton sloop
Gjplish the treacherous journey. Amundsen planned to be the first
man to the North Pole, and he was about to embark in 1909 when he
learned that the American Robert Peary had achieved the feat.
Amundsen completed his preparations
and in June 1910 sailed instead for Antarctica, where the English
explorer Robert F. Scott was also headed with the aim of reaching
the South Pole. In early 1911, Amundsen sailed his ship into Antarctica's
Bay of Whales and set up base camp 60 miles closer to the pole than
Scott. In October, both explorers set off--Amundsen using sleigh dogs,
and Scott employing Siberian motor sledges, Siberian ponies, and dogs.
On 14 December 1911, Amundsen's expedition wins the race to the Pole.
It would return safely to base camp in late January.
Scott's expedition was less fortunate. The motor sleds broke down,
the ponies had to be shot, and the dog teams were sent back as Scott
and four companions continued on foot. On 18 January 1912, they reached
the pole only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by over a month.
Weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad--two members perished--and
a storm later trapped Scott and the other two survivors in their tent
only 18 km from their base camp. Scott's frozen body was found later
that year. After his historic
Antarctic journey, Amundsen established a successful shipping business.
He later made attempts to become the first explorer to fly over the
North Pole. In 1925, in an airplane, he flew within 250 km of the
goal. In 1926, he passed over the North Pole in a dirigible just three
days after American explorer Richard E. Byrd had allegedly done so
in an aircraft. In 1996, a diary
that Byrd had kept on the flight was found that seemed to suggest
that the he had turned back 250 km short of its goal because of an
oil leak, making Amundsen's dirigible expedition the first flight
over the North Pole. In 1928, Amundsen lost his life while trying
to rescue a fellow explorer whose dirigible had crashed at sea near
Spitsbergen, Norway.
Le vendredi 14 décembre 1911,
le Norvégien Roald Amundsen devient le premier homme à
atteindre le pôle Sud. Cet explorateur déterminé
a déjà forcé en bateau le passage du Nord-Ouest,
entre l'Atlantique et l'Alaska en 1903-1905. Il envisage de se rendre
au Pôle Nord mais il est devancé par le commodore américain
Peary et son compagnon noir. Qu'à cela ne tienne. Le Norvégien
retourne son ambition vers le Pôle Sud qu'un Britannique, Robert
Scott, rêve aussi de vaincre. Le 19 octobre 1911, Amundsen quitte
sa base de la Baie des Baleines avec quatre hommes et 52 chiens. Une
organisation minutieuse et un itinéraire optimum lui permettent
d'arriver au pôle le premier. Il plante le drapeau norvégien
et laisse une lettre à l'attention de son concurrent malheureux.
Robert Scott atteint le Pôle Sud un mois plus tard. Dépité,
il ne trouve pas la force d'achever le chemin du retour. La découverte
de son corps et de celui de ses compagnons, un an plus tard, accompagnés
de leurs derniers écrits, ternira la gloire d'Amundsen. Ces
compétitions excessives, dans un monde fini que l'Europe domine
de façon écrasante, laissent entrevoir la folie qui
se déchaînera de tous côtés quelques mois
plus tard, avec l'entrée dans la Grande Guerre.

1909 The Labor Conference in Pittsburgh ends with a "declaration
of war" on US Steel. 1906 The first U1 submarine
is brought into service in Germany. 1908 The first
truly representative Turkish Parliament opens.

1863 Battle of Bean's Station--Confederacy repulses
Union in Tennessee 1863 Confederate General James
Longstreet attacks Union troops at Bean's Station, Tenn. 1863
President Abraham Lincoln grants amnesty to the widow of Confederate General
B.H. Helm after she swears allegiance to the Union. Mrs. Helm is the half-sister
of Mary Todd Lincoln.

^1863 Lincoln pardons his half-sister-in-law
US President Lincoln announces a grant
of amnesty for Mrs. Emilie Todd Helm, Mary Lincoln's half sister and
the widow of a Confederate general. The pardon was one of the first
under Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which
he had announced less than a week before. The plan was the president's
blueprint for the reintegration of the South into the Union. Part
of the plan allowed for former Confederates to be granted amnesty
if they took an oath to the United States. The option was open to
all but the highest officials of the Confederacy.
Emilie Todd Helm was the wife of Benjamin Helm, who, like the Lincolns,
was a Kentucky native. Lincoln was said to be a great admirer of Helm,
a West Point and Harvard graduate. Lincoln had offered Helm a position
in the US Army, but Helm opted to join the Confederates instead. Helm
led a group of Kentuckians known as the "Orphan Brigade," since they
could not return to their Union-held native state during the war.
Helm was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863.
After her husband's death, Emilie Helm
made her way through Union lines to Washington. She stayed in the
White House and the Lincolns tried to keep her visit a secret. General
Daniel Sickles, who had been wounded at Gettysburg five months prior,
told Lincoln that he should not have a rebel in his house. Lincoln
replied, "General Sickles, my wife and I are in the habit of choosing
our own guests. We do not need from our friends either advice or assistance
in the matter." After Lincoln granted her pardon, Emilie Helm returned
to Kentucky.

^1790 Hamilton’s plan for Bank of the US While giving his take on the
young nation's hefty war debt, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander
Hamilton makes a proposal for the Bank of the United States. The bank
would assume responsibility for easing the nation's debt, as well
as establishing a healthy line of credit. The bank's distinctly Federalist
bent angered planters and states' rights proponents, who not only
charged Hamilton with catering to "monied interests," but also derided
his plan as unconstitutional. However, after a few months of wrangling
and debate over the constitutionality of the proposal, President Washington
finally signed the bill for the bank on 25 February 1791.

2004 Mousa Jabar, in a drive-by shooting in the Sadr
City area of Baghdad, Iraq. He was a commander in the “al-Mahdi Army”
of anti-US mullah Muqtada al-Sadr. 2004 Eight persons, including
a suicide car bomber at 08:15 (05:15 UT) in Baghdad, Iraq, near
the Harthiyah gate of the “Green Zone” of the Iraqi puppet government
and of the US embassy puppet masters. 13 persons are wounded.2004
Some 30 persons after the Jammu Tawi Ahmedabad Express crashes
head on into the local passenger train Jalandhar-Pathankot DMU at village
Mansar, near town Mukerian, Punjab state, India at 12:00 (06:30 UT). Some
60 persons are injured. Both train had been mistakenly routed on the same
track. 2004 Pinyo Wongrukawej, 42, a Buddhist teacher
driving to work with his wife, in the Sungai Padee district of Narathiwat
province, Thailand, shot from the back of a motorcycle presumably by an
Islamic rebel of the region's Muslim majority.2003:: 19 Iraqis,
including a suicide car bomber, 16 policemen, a girl, 7, and an adult civilian,
outside police station in village Khalidiyah, west of Baghdad, Iraq, at
08:40 (05:40 UT). 33 Iraqis are injured.2002 William Rodriguez,
11; Christopher Casado, 7; Mackendy Constant, 8; and Victor Baez, 9; drowned
after falling through the 3- to 5cm-thick ice on the Merrimack River in
Lawrence, Massachusetts. A group of bows was walking home from the nearby
Boys and Girls Club of Greater Lawrence. William walk onto the ice and falls.
Six boy try to save him, three die and three others are rescued. The victims'
families, had immigrated from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Eagle-Tribune
newspaper would, on 07 April 2003, be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking
News for its coverage of the story.2002 Erbil Esmer,
36, as a spark causes explosion of gas used to artificially ripen fruit,
as he is shopping for bananas at a fruit wholesaler in Balikesir, Turkey.
Nine persons are injured. Several buildings and vehicles are damaged.2001
Muhammad Abed Al-Aziz Ashour, Diyaa Mahmoud Qadah, Riziq Shaaban Hirz-Allah,
Sami Jawad Abed Allatif Aldanif, Khaled Abu Yaqoub and Asaad Abu Ataya,.Palestinian
policemen, by Israeli tanks and troops making an incursion into
Salfit, near Nablus, West Bank, early in the day.2000 Un
concejal del [Partido Popular,.asesinado en Tarrasa por ETA (Euskadi
Ta Askatasuna).1999 Cherica Adams[photo >],
24, of wounds from a 16 November drive-by shooting (when she was 6-1/2-months
pregnant) contracted by her lover football player Rae Carruth, 25, so as
to avoid having to pay child support. The baby, Chancellor Lee Adams, survives,
though with severe cerebral palsy, delivered premature by Caesarean section
shortly after the shooting. On 22 January 2001 Carruth would be sentenced
to a minimum of 227 months in prison without parole.1990
Friedrich Durrenmatt, escritor suizo.  [Etait-il dur en math?]1989 Andrei D Sakharov, 68, Soviet Physicist, Dissident
and 1975 Nobel peace prize winner, in Moscow. 1986 (o ¿1984?)
Pedro Sainz Rodríguez, profesor, escritor, académico,
y político español. 1985 Antonio Tovar Llorente,
lingüista español.1984 Vicente Aleixandre y Merlo,
poeta español, Premio Nobel en 1977 1978 Salvador
de Madariaga y Rojo, ensayista y diplomático español.
1959 Stanley Spencer, British artist born on 30
June 1891.  MORE
ON SPENCER AT ART 4 DECEMBERwith
links to images.1953 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, of
a cerebral hemorrhage. Born on 08 August 1896, she wrote the novels South
Moon Under (1933), Golden Apples (1935), The Yearling
(1939; sentimental story of a 12-year-old boy growing up to the harsh facts
of life by accepting the necessity for his pet deer to be killed), The
Sojourner (1952). in 1942 she wrote a non-fiction book about her farm,
Cross Creek, and a Florida cookbook.1950 George
Bernard Shaw, dramaturgo irlandés. 1945
Josef Kramer known as "beast of Belsen," and 10 others hung
for crimes committed at the Belsen and Oswiecim Nazi concentration camps1943 Dr. John
Harvey Kellogg, surgeon, health authority, developer of the
Battle Creek Sanitarium and founder of the food business which later became
the W. K. Kellogg Company. He was born on 26 February 1852.

New York: the film star Greta Garbo gives $5000 to the Finnish
aid fund.

1930 Los capitanes Galán y García Hernández,
fusilados por la sublevación republicana de Jaca. 1927
Sokhotsky,
mathematician.1926 Albert Müller, Swiss artist
born in 1897.1923 Théophile Alexandre Steinlen,
Swiss French artist born on 10 November 1859. — more1918 Bernardino Sidònio Paes, asesinado, presidente
de la República Portuguesa.1909 Agustín Querol,
escultor español. 1904 Philip Lodewijk Jacob Frederik
Sadee, Dutch artist born on 07 February 1837. 1903
William Ennis first cop to die in the electric chair 1897
Francesco
Brioschi, mathematician.1888 Richard Redgrave,
British artist born on 30 April 1804.  MORE
ON REDGRAVE AT ART 4 DECEMBERwith
links to images. 1861 Prince Albert of England,
one of the Union's strongest advocates in the US Civil War.1852
Johann-Jakob Dorner II, German artist born on 07 July 1775. 
Not to be confused with the painter of The
Hard Landlady (1787)

^1799 George Washington,
US revolutionary leader and first president of the United States,
acute laryngitis, at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia.
Washington was born on 22 February
1732 to a farm family in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and through
his extensive reading was essentially self-educated. From
an early age, the future first president of the United States had
a passionate interest in the vast unsettled territories of the West.
Like many other aristocratic Virginians, Washington coveted land,
and most ambitious young men of the eighteenth century had one way
to acquire land: they went west. As a 16-year-old in 1748, Washington
made the first of several long journeys into the West, working as
a skilled surveyor in the Shenandoah Valley. Unusually tall and strong,
Washington loved the wild western lands of Virginia and was an excellent
frontiersman. From the start, Washington's ambitions were unabashedly
mercenary, and he could not gaze on any tract of pristine land without
considering its potential for development and profit. To that end,
Washington had little tolerance for the remaining bands of Indians
he encountered during his travels, writing in his journal that he
found their war dances "comical.  Washington also had a strong
distaste for the illegal pioneers who squatted on western lands they
did not own, calling one group of Pennsylvania Germans as "Ignorant
a Set of People as the Indians.  Washington believed both the
Indians and the illegal squatters would need to be removed if the
land was to be properly settled and exploited. Washington's
first direct military experience came as a major in the Virginia colonial
militia in 1754, when he led a small expedition against the French
in the Ohio River valley on behalf of the governor of Virginia. As
a colonel during the Seven Years' War between Britain and France,
Washington took command of the defenses of the western Virginian frontier
in 1756. After joining the colonial
military to defend British interests in the West, Washington moved
quickly to increase his own land holdings and develop them for profit.
As a reward for his military service, Washington claimed 12'000 hectares
of prime agricultural land along the Kanawha and Ohio rivers west
of the Appalachian Mountains (an area that lies in modern-day West
Virginia and Ohio). To solidify his claim and begin generating a profit,
Washington advertised for settlers and purchased slaves to colonize
his holdings. After the Seven
Years' War, Washington resigned from his military post and over the
next two decades he openly opposed the escalating British taxation
and repression of the American colonies. In 1774, Washington represented
Virginia at the Continental Congress and, after the American War for
Independence erupted in 1775, was appointed commander in chief of
the newly established Continental army. The
outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775 and Washington's growing
political responsibilities often interfered with his personal plans
for western expansion during the following years, and he rarely had
time to visit his distant landholdings. Not surprisingly, when he
became the first president of the United States, Washington strongly
endorsed the idea that the young nation must expand westward and settle
the Trans-Appalachian regions of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.
It remained for Washington's successors to fully realize his vision,
but the first president led his countrymen in speculating on and profiting
from the sale and rent of western lands.
With this inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers,
Washington led an effective war of harassment against British forces
in America, while employing his extraordinary diplomatic skills to
encourage the intervention of the French into the conflict on behalf
of the colonists. On 19 October 1781, British General Charles Lord
Cornwallis [31 Dec 1738 – 05 Oct 1805] surrendered his massive
British army at Yorktown, Virginia, and General George Washington
had defeated one of the most powerful nations on earth.
After the war, the victorious revolutionary general retired to his
estate at Mount Vernon, but in 1787 he heeded his nation's call and
returned to politics to preside over the Constitutional Convention
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On 30 April 1789, George Washington
was inaugurated as the first president of the United States, and in
1792 was unanimously elected to a second term. While in office, he
sought to unite the nation and protect the interests of the new republic
at home and abroad. In 1797, Washington retired to Mount Vernon, where
he dies of natural causes two years later.

1789 Étienne Jeaurat, French painter born on 09
February 1699. — more
with link to an image.1788 Carlos III, Rey de España.
1734 Noël-Nicolas Coypel, French painter born
on 17 November 1690.  MORE
ON COYPEL AT ART 4 NOVEMBERwith
links to images.1591 Saint
John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes on 24 Jun 1542, founder
(with Saint
Teresa of Avila [28 Mar 1515 – 04 Oct 1582]) of the Discalced
Carmelites, doctor of mystic theology. —(071213)1287
Some 50'000 drown as Zuider Zee seawall collapses.

2004 The Millau Viaduct, the tallest vehicular bridge in
the world, is inaugurated. It is 2.5 km long, 272 m above the river Tarn
in Millau, in France’s Massif Central mountains. The steel-and-concrete
bridge hangs by cables from seven pillars, the tallest measuring 342 m.
It was designed by the English architect Norman Foster, who also designed
London’s Millennium Bridge. Colorado’s Royal Gorge Bridge, 321
m above the Arkansas River, is the world’s tallest suspension bridge,
but it is designed for pedestrians. The Kochertal viaduct in Germany was
the highest roadway, at 185 m. The bridge, nearly three years in construction
(by the Eiffage construction company), opens to vehicles on 16 December
2004. The $523 million bridge opens a new north-south link between Paris
and the Mediterranean. Some 28'000 vehicles a day are expected to cross
the bridge in the summer months, and about 10'000 a day the rest of the
year. Toll fees for cars will vary from $6.50 in winter and $8.62 in summer.
Trucks will have to pay $32.24 year-round. — more
images

^1998 High-speed Internet 2
IXC Communications announces that it has turned on a new coast-to-coast
data network that it hoped would serve as the backbone for the next
generation Internet. The National Science Foundation had launched
a project to develop a new, higher-speed version of the Internet called
Internet 2, for use by universities and research institutions. The
new Internet would utilize specially created networks rather than
existing phone lines.

^1900 Quantum Theory
At the Physics Society in Berlin German physicist Max Planck presents
his groundbreaking study of the effect of radiation on a "blackbody"
substance, and the quantum theory of modern physics is born. Through
physical experiments, Planck demonstrates that energy, in certain
situations, can exhibit characteristics of physical matter. According
to theories of classical physics, energy is solely a continuous wave-like
phenomenon, independent of the characteristics of physical matter.
The new theory holds that radiant energy is made up of particle-like
components, known as "quantum. 
Planck's quantum theory helps to resolve previously unexplainable
natural phenomenon such as the behavior of heat in solids and the
nature of the light absorption on an atomic level. In 1918, Planck
is rewarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on blackbody radiation.
Other scientists, such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie,
Erwin Schrodinger, and Paul M. Dirac, advance Planck's theory, and
make possible the development of quantum mechanics, a mathematical
application of the quantum theory that maintains that energy is both
matter and a wave, depending on the situation. Today, the combination
of quantum mechanics with Einstein's theory of relativity is the basis
of modern physics.

^1640 Aphra Johnson (Behn) (baptized),
at Harbledown, near Canterbury, England, playwright and novelist,
the first Englishwoman to make her living as a writer.
Behn's origins are unclear, but historians believe she was probably
the daughter of Bartholomew Johnson and Elizabeth Denham of Harbledown.
She appears to have lived in Surinam, then an English colony known
as Dutch Guiana, for several years as a young woman. In the mid-1660s,
she married a merchant by the last name of Behn in England who died
several years later. After her
husband's death, Behn allegedly served as a secret agent in the Netherlands
for Charles II of England but was not paid for her services, and was
put in prison for debt when she returned to England. She began writing
to support herself, and her first play, The Forced Marriage,
was produced in 1671 at Lincoln's Inn Fields by the Duke's Company.
The play was a hit, and Behn wrote many more successful comedies,
of which 17 survive. Her most popular work, The
Rover, was produced in two parts, in 1677 and 1681. She also
wrote poetry prolifically. Her novel Oroonoko
(1688) told the story of an enslaved African prince.
Behn, a lively and charming woman, became very popular among her many
friends. Although one of her plays irritated the Duke of Monmouth,
the king's illegitimate son, enough to land Behn in jail briefly,
she continued to write lively, satiric plays and poetry until her
death in 1689. She was the first woman to be buried in Westminster
Abbey in recognition of her own achievements.
BEHN ONLINE:
The City Heiress -- The
Lady's Looking-Glass, to Dress Herself By: or, The Whole Art of Charming
-- Oroonoko:
Or, The Royal Slave -- The
Rover: Or, The Banish'd Cavaliers -- The
Unfortunate Happy Lady: A True History

Thoughts for the day:
“If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.”
“If your work speaks for itself, ask it whether it can also do
itself.”
If I interrupt your work, don't speak to yourself.
“If your interruptions speak for themselves, don't work.”
“If your speaking works by itself, don't interfere.”
“If your work interrupts my speech, stop it.”
“If your interruptions work, don't speak.”
“An atheist is a person who has no invisible means of support” --
14 Dec 1955, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen [08 May 1895 – 09 Dec 1979]When you lift yourself up by your own bootstraps, you have no visible
means of support.
When you're living on a shoestring budget, you can't afford to lift yourself
up by your own bootstraps.
When you're living on a shoestring budget, you can't afford shoes.
When you're living on a shoestring budget, you're dying to get off that
steady diet of shoestring potatoes. [not to mention that they
have too much fat and salt] [Recipe for less-unhealthy shoestring
potatoes: Heat polyunsaturated oil in a deep fat fryer or deep skillet to 180ºC
(360ºF). Peel the potatoes, cut each one lengthwise to a 3mm (1/8-inch) thickness,
using a food processor or knife to obtain matchstick-size strips the length of
the potato. Reserve in cold water until ready to fry. Drain the matchstick potatoes
and pat dry in a towel. Carefully plunge them into the fryer one handful at a
time without plunging your hand. Stir until a light golden-brown, about 3 minutes,
remove with a mesh skimmer, drain on paper towels, and do not sprinkle with a
pinch of salt, we have too much sodium in our diet as it is (if you absolutely
feel the need to sprinkle salt, sprinkle it on the weeds in the yard). Do not
eat at 180ºC, let them cool to below 60ºC and feed them to the dog.].Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific
bills.  Minna Antrim, US writer [1856-1950].Bills are good teachers, but they make for a terrifying
experience.